1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of determining a time offset estimate between a central node and a secondary node; particularly, where the nodes have periodic local timing.
2. Description of Related Art
Clock synchronization is an extremely important problem for networks and systems with distributed resources. In many cases, network nodes need to have their clocks synchronized to a common reference known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), simply denoted as “t”. One way of achieving this goal is to use clock radio receivers of satellite-based systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). In situations where GPS is unavailable or cannot be utilized, different nodes of the network will set their own local timings as a totally random function of the UTC time “t”.
Node synchronization then becomes a problem of “finding out” or “estimating” the differences or offsets between local node timing references. Node synchronization is a problem of prime importance in many systems (e.g., the Internet, wireless network systems, etc). And, the problem of node synchronization is particularly acute in networks that have nodes with periodic local timing.